Good News & Bad News

The good news is the thermostat in my Camry is ok.

You know, when my car started getting hot I automatically blamed the thermostat. Must be sticking. Never even thought to check the radiator fluid. I thought just using the fan to suck the extra heat out would let my car gimp out until we could get another car, but it started actually getting up in the red zone. When I told The Man that he decided to go ahead & put in a new thermostat even though we already had a nice little Oldsmobile picked out. The poor old beater just had to last another couple of weeks.

So on the way home from work I stopped & got a new thermostat, plus a gallon of radiator fluid & a couple of quarts of oil. The nice young man at the auto parts store even went outside & showed me where the thermostat goes, and filled the radiator. It was really low. Not empty, but close. Apparently, having radiator fluid IN the radiator is more important than I thought. On the way home the car didn't get hot at all. At least, the engine didn't get hot. The air coming out of the vents was hot enough to bake a cake.

So is everything happily ever after?

Not exactly.

When I got home The Man came out so I could show him where the thermostat goes. While we were out there he decided to check the radiator & make sure it was topped off right. That was when he noticed the water gushing from the engine right around the water pump.

Yes, the problem wasn't the thermostat sticking, it was the water pump dumping all the radiator fluid all over the driveway, the highway, & the parking lot at work.

Now the Camry is officially lawn art. I say drive it until it gives up the ghost, but The Man won't let me drive it anywhere. Not to work, not to the store, not even around the block. That would be okay if I had another car to drive, & technically I do. We have a van that The Man drives. I could drive it. I have before, but then he wouldn't have a car. He has doctor appointments to go to & grocery shopping to do.

What to do, what to do.

The whole family, us here at the Cud household, Mom & Dad, my brother & sister, share Big Red, an 86 Ford F50. My brother bought it for $600 as is. That was the starting price. Since then my dad has upgraded it to the tune of somewhere around $5000. At least that's the estimate of The Man. Don't tell him I told you, but sometimes he rounds up. All I know is if there's anything Big Red needs, Dad makes sure Big Red gets. So of course, when I need to borrow Big Red Dad has it in the shop. He took it in because the gas gauge didn't work. You just have to write down the mileage & how much gas you put in & then guesstimate when you need to put in more. Unfortunately, both my brother & The Man both guesstimated wrong & ended up on the side of the road a couple of times. Not surprisingly, when the mechanic started working on the gas gauge he noticed rust holes all over the top of the gas tank. So now Big Red is in the shop waiting for a new tank.

So Big Red was out. Luckily, there was another option. When my uncle died Mom & Dad ended up with his car. A tiny white Miata.

Oh My God I Hate That Car! Don't ever buy a Miata. It sits about two inches off the ground. When you turn on the headlights they pop up out of the engine compartment so you're driving with these two big square blind spots right in front of you. Pretty piss poor planning if you ask me. It's a stick shift & the stick is about the size of a pack of Lifesavers with a jawbreaker on top. It has a double cup-holder. Right in the armrest between the seats, so if you actually have a cup in the cup-holder you can barely shift gears. Or you knock over the cup, one or the other.

I borrowed the Miata once before a couple of years ago when the starter went out in my poor little Camry. Of course, the one time I needed it there was an ice-storm. This car weighs about as much as a 6-pack of Coke & it probably crumples just as easy. All the way home I expected to end up spending the night shivering in the ditch somewhere. I have never been so happy to make it home as I was that night. I still remember driving down the street to my house, then sliding past the driveway & halfway down the block. The Girl & The Man had to push the car into the driveway.

As you can imagine the Miata isn't exactly a geezer car, so it ended up getting handed down to my nephew Danny, who probably loves it. I'm sure it's a real chick magnet. He just graduated from college down at Cape Girardeau, MO, & now he's living here in Winfield with my sister Mary (Who is going to be blogging here again. Hopefully soon. We're all looking at you, Mary.). Luckily they were both going down to Cape to visit my niece, Linda, & her new husband, leaving the evil Miata behind, so I was able to borrow it for a few days.

Of course, things with the Miata didn't start out well. I picked it up Wednesday night & didn't have any problem driving it home. Except it shifts differently than my trusty old Camry, go figure, so it probably looked like whoever was driving was having convulsions.

The next day, when I was ready to drive to work, was another story. I got in, stuck the key in the ignition.

Nothing.

It wouldn't even turn. I looked at the ignition itself & it was set to lock, so I jiggled the steering wheel left, jiggled it right, thinking maybe that would unlock it. That worked with the Camry, but not with the Miata. Still nothing. I took the key out, stuck it back in, tried pushing it while I turned it, looked for a button to push or a lever to flip to unlock the ignition (again, worked with the Camry) but still, nothing. I tried all the buttons I could find. Lights, radio, windows. Nothing worked. All I could do was lock the door & that was only because the lock was manual, not electronic.

Finally I'd had enough. It was time to bring in the big guns. If anybody could make that piece of shit run it was The Man. Unfortunately, the door latch is as big a piece of shit as the rest of the car & I couldn't get the door to open. I was trapped. I eventually got out my phone & called The Man. By the time he got there I'd beaten the door into submission but I still couldn't get the key to turn.

I got out, he got in, took the Camry key out of the ignition & put in the Miata key & started it right up.